SMART Goals

Organization and Leadership
MGT - 605

May 28, 2014

SMART Goals
A person needs motivation to achieve goals. It is a desire from within us that needs to be satisfied. Maslow (1943) stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs. When one need is fulfilled a person seeks to fulfill the next one. Attaining goals is gratifying to our souls. Motivation is power that keeps us trying one more time, when everything around us says give up. It is the driving force for all types of success.
Personal Goal
One of my personal goals is to slow down the process of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) in my health. I have a very strong family history and background of DM. Diabetes is a disease in which a person has a high blood sugar. Diabetes is due to pancreas not producing enough insulin or the body does not respond properly to the insulin produced. Controlling the progression of diabetes in my health will prolong my life expectancy. Prevention involves modification in diet, physical exercise, and avoiding the use of tobacco or smoking. A yearly physical examination and regular monitoring of blood sugar as well as laboratory work for diagnosis of diabetes are routinely done by my primary doctor. All these measures aid me in regulating my blood sugar and achieving my goal to delay the progression of diabetes in my system and prolonging my lifespan. My only challenge that I face for not reaching my goal is when my motivation fades and declines because of changes in my attitudes and behaviors. Being an active participant for the benefit of my health I know I am able to accomplish my goal. Having an extensive knowledge about diabetes to be a chronic metabolic disease and being in the medical field is a big help to keep on track. Being a nurse as my profession, I consider my development level to be highly competent and highly committed on attaining and maintaining my personal goal.

Educational Goal
My current educational goal is to obtain my Masters in Public Administration (MPA) with Emphasis on Healthcare Management by 2016. I selected this curriculum because it will facilitate to widen my profession, open more avenues, and aid to meet the requisites for a higher executive status. Having my MPA degree with emphasis on Healthcare Management, I plan to be a part of a team that assess and evaluates guidelines and practices that will help improve the current nurse to patient ratio in the future. Having acquired referential information of studies together with my nursing skills I aspire to advance the health care methods of lowering the patient to nurse ratio. Lower patient to nurse ratio allows nurses the time to interact and develop a positive relationship with the patient. Hence, increasing positive experiences of the patient on their hospital stay which results to improved patient satisfaction. Laying a definite mind set and discipline I am confident I will be able to attain my educational goal by 2016. Currently, I am keeping track of my educational progression and effectively managing my work schedule to avoid being overwhelmed. My motivation to attain my educational goal is very high. My knowledge for the degree I am pursuing is slowly building up as I continue through the core courses. I can consider myself, according to Blanchard (2010) development level to be in low competence and high commitment. With my current clinical skills and extensive experience in nursing and the support of my director I am definite to complete my educational goal by 2016.
Professional Goal
My impending professional goal is to advance my nursing career from clinical, hands-on environment to corporate management in research and development (R&D) in the hospital that I work by 2018. I have been working in the same hospital for over ten years and well-adjusted to the culture of the hospital. I have developed my clinical skills to a solid clinical experience. I have obtained required certifications to improve myself to become an expert to a particular nursing practice like taking care of a pancreas and kidney transplant patients. It is a highly specialized nursing care that needs a one to one patient to nurse ratio. I am currently building and expanding my networking in preparation to attain my professional goal in the near future. I am always in the look-out for R&D position and in some way inquiring about the position, gradually forming some interaction and connection with the R&D staff. At this early stage, I am already positioning myself at work to have all my contact persons on hand and ensuring that I have a good relationship with all of them. I am highly committed to acquire a position in the R&D division of the hospital. I have worked hard to equip myself to have a strong clinical skills and experiences, as well as advancing my education to the next level. All of these factors will be able to assist in gaining a positive result and an advantage point to achieve my professional goal.
Conclusion
All of my personal, educational, and professional stated goals are presently in progress and I am on track. My diabetes is well under controlled. I am slowly but surely taking core courses for my MPA. All my certifications and licenses are renewed and active with date validity. And I am maintaining my good standing at work and increasingly encouraging myself to work hard to achieve my professional goal.

Reference
Blanchard, K. (2010). Leading At A Higher Level. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall
Maslow, A. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review, 50, 370-396.